Monday, September 08, 2008

The Affordable Footwear Act: End The Shoe Tariff

The Affordable Footwear Act seeks to remove regressive and punitive import duties, commonly called the "shoe tax," on a range of shoe types popular with today's consumers, particularly lower- to moderately-priced footwear and children's shoes.

The Depression-era shoe tax originated in 1930 (Smoot-Hawley) to protect a manufacturing sector that no longer exists today. Over the last 20 years, U.S. footwear production has practically disappeared. The few remaining U.S. footwear manufacturers successfully focus on niche items differentiated by quality, brand, specialized purpose, or other non-price elements.

The Affordable Footwear Act does not apply to the remaining footwear types still manufactured domestically, thus U.S. manufacturers do not oppose it. The shoe types addressed by the Affordable Footwear Act are no longer produced in America, yet are still subject to the regressive, expensive shoe tax.

The hard-nosed competition that exists in the U.S. footwear market - recognized by the U.S. International Trade Commission - ensures that a substantial portion of the duty-savings will be passed on to American consumers. In fact, due to this competition, retail prices for footwear have fallen over 4% since 1998 while overall retail prices grew over 25% during the same period (see chart above).

I thought you would be interested in knowing the American Apparel & Footwear Association (where I intern) had launched a website to fight costly shoe tariffs. The name of the legislation is The Affordable Footwear Act. Learn more at www.endtheshoetax.org